


Shared Experiences

by periwinklepromise



Category: That '70s Show
Genre: F/F, Getting Together, University AU, different first meeting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-15
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-01-14 17:58:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18481438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/periwinklepromise/pseuds/periwinklepromise
Summary: The "both of us are stuck in the dorm common room because our respective roommates need 'alone time' with their boyfriends" AU





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> AU prompt from a list made my tumblr user perfectlyrose

The door is slammed right in Donna's face, just barely missing her nose and overshooting her temper by a mile. Freshmen having to live on campus and having to have roommates? Total _bullshit_. Donna huffs and decides to give in for now; it's midnight, and she's not gonna wake up an RA to interrupt Sleazy “Sizzlin” Sarah getting it on in their _shared_ dormroom!!!

But when Donna stomps down to the common room, there's already some other girl there, looking super cute and more than a little bored. The brunette flicks her eyes up, does a quick check of her outfit or something, and then goes back to filing her already perfect-looking nails. 

“You get thrown out too?” Donna guesses, flopping down on the comfiest chair and propping her feet up on the coffeetable.

The pretty girl shrugs. “It's her turn.”

“You take turns?” _Yuck_ , Donna thinks. 

“We have a system,” the girl confirms. “I get weekends, she gets week days.”

Donna smirks, reading between the lines of that arrangement. “So you get all the fun time away from stress, and she has to put it off to do homework?” 

The girl beams, and it lights her face up something wonderful. “Exactly! I deserve the best, you know.”

Donna is not entirely sure that is true, but this girl does seem like the kind to be getting her M.R.S. degree. Donna can only hope that sometime soon, women can be judged on individual virtues instead of their ability to attract a filthy rich husband. That ERA just _has_ to pass!

“And one day,” she sighs dreamily. “I'll be Mrs. Michael Kelso!”

Wait. Donna has heard that name before. She heard it tonight. “Michael _Kelso_? Your boyfriend is _Michael Kelso_?!”

The pretty girl just nods, chipper as anything. “He's perfect!”

Oh hell, how is she going to tell her. She really doesn't want to. But she has to. She _has_ to! Donna takes a deep breath for strength. “Um, I know we're not friends or anything, and I don't really know how to tell you this, but -”

“This was great, Sarah, but remember, babe, we gotta keep this to ourselves,” Michael Kelso says to her roommate, pulling his shirt down to cover his stomach as he walks into the common room. “Jackie!” 

He looks almost as surprised as this Jackie girl does. “...Michael?”

Oh, _hell_. 

“ _Michael!!!_ ” Jackie shrieks, jumping up and pouncing on him, and despite his height, and Jackie's petite form, he does seem to be actually scared. From the side, her horrid roommate Sarah slips away to not deal with any of this. 

Donna would be angrier with her, but it's really the man's fault when he cheats, and honestly, how dumb did he have to be to cheat on his girlfriend with someone _who lives on the same floor_?!

She sighs and slips back to her room too. Obviously, it's safe for normal-people-habitation again. But she may need to disinfect Sarah's bed.


	2. Chapter 2

Not a week later, Sarah has found some other fool to take up to their room, so Donna is riding the common room couch again. The girls from across the hall came home from some sorority function half an hour ago and gave her some pitying looks.

Which Donna would be more mad about, but to be honest, she deserves the pity. Her roommate can't keep her hands to herself. Or find a guy to sleep with who has his own room. 

“Donna, right?”

Donna spins around to see that cute girl, Jackie, standing by the stairs, looking a little like she's been run over by a truck. 

“Right,” she says, when she is finally able to move her tongue. “And you're Jackie?” She's sure, of course she's sure, but it might be best to not remind this girl how she knows her name – from her boyfriend saying it in shock when he got caught cheating. Ex-boyfriend? Boyfriend? Jackie looks like a wreck, so maybe they broke up? There's no nice way of asking, so Donna will have to let it drop … for now.

Jackie nods. She still looks half dead, like she might fall over any second. Should Donna have her sit down? Is there a not-awkward way of asking?

“Um. How're you doing?” Donna tries to ask with the least amount of pity possible. She's not sure how well she pulls it off, but at least she tried, right?

Jackie shrugs. Or at least, she tries to shrug. It's like she can't find the energy to move. 

Donna holds back a wince at that. She's gotta do something. _Something_... “Listen, my roommate's taking the room right now. Wanna grab a burger?” That was … good, that was smooth. Donna bites back her smile. 

Jackie shrugs again, but her eyes seem a little brighter, actually catch on Donna's face for a moment. “Yeah. Just one. For your sake. You look like a big goon on that couch every night.” But she says it with a small smile, and no fire in her eyes. 

“Hey now, it's not every night,” she defends with a smile. She'd strangle Sarah before letting that happen.

Jackie almost laughs. “Yeah, well, no offense, but your roommate? She's a major skank.”

Donna actually does laugh at that. “You're right about that.” Sarah annoys her too much to argue it. But like. Feminism definitely argues women shouldn't judge others like that. But the important women in feminism didn't get kicked out by Sleazy Sizzlin Sarah … _most_ nights. And besides. Feminism is _totally_ a work in progress. “Fatso okay?”

“Hey, I am _not_ a fatso!”

“Whoa, hey, no, not you,” Donna corrects her in a hurry, jumping to her feet. “The burger place. Is Fatso Burger okay?”

“Oh.” Jackie looks a little flustered, but her defense warms Donna's heart all the same. At least she's still passionate and alive about _something_. “Yeah. Fatso would be fine.” And then she drags her eyes all the way down Donna's body … and then she blinks hard. And kind of whistles, but quietly to herself. 

So whatever insult she was planning on giving, she must have changed her mind based on what she saw. Donna half-smiles. Then gives herself a mental shake. Burgers first. Food is good.

“Your car or mine?”

Jackie brings out a ring of keys from her purse. “We can take mine.” Then she looks down at herself. “But first, I need to change.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Well, I should get to bed.” Jackie pats her knee and stands up, brushing herself off. “If I don't get at least six hours of beauty sleep each night, I'll get _wrinkles_.”

“Um, wait, Jackie.” Donna takes a deep breath and pushes through the question, “I was wondering if you wanted to go see the Star Trek movie with me on Friday?” And then she holds her breath and tenses up and waits. 

Jackie's nose wrinkles up. 

Donna's heart drops down to her feet. She's going to say no...

Jackie huffs and says, “Donna, I _told_ you, I _don't like space_.” Donna nods along, already understanding... 

Wait. 

_What_? 

Donna tilts her head in confusion, probably looking a little scrunched up herself. “You've never told me that.”

Jackie seems confused too. And then a little light goes off in her eyes. “Oh! Sorry, you're right, I didn't, I told Michael.” And then she pulls up short, her eyes darting away from Donna's face altogether. 

“You confused me with Michael?” That's … not exactly more flattering than Jackie saying no outright. 

Jackie … blushes? That's a good sigh, right? “Um. No?”

“Jackie, you're blushing!” she accuses her, pointing at her face like there could be anywhere else she could be blushing.

Jackie's hands fly up to her cheeks. “No, I'm not! It's – I just – I just switched to a powder blush instead of a transluscent gel blush, is all. You'd know the difference if you ever wore any makeup!” She lifts her eyebrows up in a challenge.

Donna softens some. After weeks of spending time with Jackie, she could recognize that bluster from a mile off. Jackie is getting defensive, and when Jackie gets defensive, that means Donna is getting closer to the truth than Jackie wants her to get. 

“I'm just saying. I'm a redhead. I blush all the time. It's no big deal.”

Jackie rolls her eyes. “You don't have to tell _me_ that.”

“I know I don't. I just … wanted to let you know.”

Jackie nods. “Okay. Yeah. Cool. Well then. I'm gonna go to bed.”

Donna nods too. “Good night.”

Jackie looks a little dazed as she stumbles down the hall. Then she turns around. “Hey, Donna? We can watch that Star Wars movie, if you want.”

“Star _Trek_ ,” Donna corrects. And then she blushes. That is so not the part to focus on right now. Did Jackie just say yes? _Did Jackie just say yes?!_ “Um. Five o'clock showing okay?”

Jackie smiles, something soft and warm. “Yeah. I'll drive.”


	4. Chapter 4

Jackie lets Donna put her arm around her when they exit Jackie's car – some hotshot Mustang her daddy had bought for her as a graduation present. It's a clear night, freezing out, but Jackie wore some flimsy little dress with a cute hat and mittens on over it and hasn't complained about the cold once. 

So they do the most relaxed stroll Donna can manage without getting frostbite, and she keeps her arm around Jackie as they walk up all those stairs to their floor, and Jackie lets her open the door to the floor's common room for her, and twirl her into the room and rest her hands on Jackie's hips. 

She had been a little afraid that Jackie had just agreed to this as _friends_ instead of an actual date, but Jackie made it pretty clear that she wouldn't waste this outfit on _just anyone_ at dinner, so Donna can breathe a lot easier now. 

They had a _date_. She just went on a _date_ with Jackie Burkhart, the prettiest girl in this whole dormitory. She runs a thumb along the silk on Jackie's hip. Soft, smooth. She flicks her eyes up from those silky hips to Jackie's big, bright eyes that are sorta brown and sorta green and _wow_ , her eyelashes look a mile long with the way she's looking up at Donna, and her lips look soft, and shimmery somehow – makeup? That lip gloss stuff? Will that get stuck to her lips too?

And then Jackie is reaching up and kissing her, and the answer is yes, some of that lip stuff is getting on her lips too, and boy, Donna doesn't care one bit, not if it means she gets to keep kissing her. 

Then Jackie pulls away, and Donna kinda wants to pout, but she can respect Jackie's space. She can have as much as she needs.

“My roommate has the room tonight. Can we go to yours?” Jackie asks, a little breathless. 

Oh! Um... “Yeah! Totally!” She grabs Jackie's hand and all but drags her down the hall to her room.

Her sleazy roommate Sizzlin Sarah is there, surrounded by bottles of nail polish, but she doesn't seem to have one open yet. _Good_. 

“Hey. Sarah. My turn for the room.” Donna jerks a thumb back to the door. “You can go hang out in the common area.”

Sarah gasps and huffs, but it's easy enough to push her out the door and lock it behind her. 

Then Donna spins back around to Jackie, with her cute date outfit and her beautiful eyes and her soft lips. They collapse on Donna's bed together, Jackie's cold hands already slipping under her shirt, but the rest of her is warm and lovely. 

Jackie moves to kiss along her jaw. “Donna?”

“Yeah, Jackie?” _Please say you'll stay the night, please say you'll stay..._

“I'm glad your roommate is such a skank,” she says seriously. 

Donna lets out a little laugh against her skin. “Yeah. Me too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The End!


End file.
